The new fatwa comes as a surprise, particularly after so many members of the terrorist group have been posting pictures online of themselves with kittens.

In the last few years, ISIS fighters have been posing with cats in a bid to attract a new breed of young fighters (Picture: Twitter)

But it appears to have all just been a propaganda stunt to attract a new breed of young fighters.

Advertisement

Advertisement

A UN report carried out in 2014 revealed that 15,000 jihadists from 80 countries flocked to Iraq and Syria after seeing pictures of cats next to AK-47s and masked men.

According to the report, ISIS recognised the ‘the terror and recruitment value of multi-channel, multi-language social and other media messaging’ so used the cat craze to make them appear more approachable.

Cats appear in many of their pictures posted on social media (Picture: Twitter)

Sometimes the cats are surrounded by guns and grenades (Picture: Twitter)